Book Recommendation: Getting our Bodies Back

Reviewed by: Belinda Davies
Author: Christine Caldwell

This book is based on Caldwell’s work in the field of body-centred therapy which has as its underlying premise that mind, body and soul are inextricably linked. The path to insight and awareness, and to making the unconscious conscious is to be found in the fact that the body holds the key to unlocking, understanding and healing addictive behaviour. Addiction is understood as anything one can’t help doing – so it can be extended beyond the usual drug addictions to behavioural and emotional addictions that cannot be understood by the rational mind. Caldwell teaches the reader to make the links between unconscious physical movement “tags” and the places where our bodies have become split off from our psyches. Raising this to consciousness enables the coach to enable the client to establish where the difficulty originated – and then healing can begin.

The addictive behaviours which clients cannot help doing – no matter how hard they try to change it – have ancient and now unconscious roots. The body – and the client’s unconscious tag behaviours – give the coach clues about where to start looking in order to achieve insight and raise awareness. The book has a useful model for change and working with the wisdom of the body – called the Moving Cycle – which gives the coach a roadmap. In addition, Caldwell offers some extremely useful practices for application at each stage of the cycle.